Yesterday, we were treated to another preliminary injunction on a product due to patent trolling. Over the past few years, some companies have resorted to patent trolling instead of competing on merit, using frivolous and obvious software and design patents to block competitors - even though this obviously shouldn't be legal. The fact that this is, in fact, legal, is baffling, and up until a few months ago, a regular topic here on OSNews. At some point - I stopped reporting on the matter. The reason for this is simple: I realised that intellectual property law exists outside of regular democratic processes and is, in fact, wholly and utterly totalitarian. What's the point in reporting on something we can't change via legal means?

Yep, Apple are hypocrites, big time, but guess what? so is the entire society and in my personal opinion the US in particular has taken hypocrisy to a whole new level.
On the other hand taking ideas from others, adding your own stuff and trying to put them together in the right way is what everybody is doing or trying to do.
Really, with something as complex as a personal computing device you just can't be completely original. And if you come up with something that's entirely original chances are it would be too unfamiliar to use.
Also the patent system problem is hardly anything new, it's just that Apple vs. The World is high profile. I just came across an excellent 2002 Forbes article called "Patently Absurd" written by the antitrust attorney Gary L. Reback outlining the same issues Thom has been writing here about.